Court ruling could see wider euthanasia
The European court upheld a ruling by France’s top administrative court that authorised doctors to put an end to the intravenous food and water keeping Vincent Lambert alive.
Doctors say he has been tetraplegic and in a coma since a 2008 car crash. The European court ruled French law was sufficiently clear and there was no infringement of the Article 2 clause on the right to life in the European Convention of Human Rights.
The legal battle pitched Lambert’s parents and two of his siblings against five other siblings and Lambert’s wife Rachel.
The legal drama began in January 2014, when Lambert’s doctors, backed by his wife and six of his eight siblings, decided to stop the intravenous food and water keeping him alive in line with a 2005 passive euthanasia law in France.
However, his deeply devout Catholic parents, half-brother and sister won an urgent court application to stop the plan. His parents say there are signs Lambert may have some consciousness, whereas his wife says he is in a vegetative state.
She won a ruling last June for doctors to effectively end her husband’s life, and Lambert’s medical team had been set to turn off feeding and hydration equipment before his parents got an injunction. Lawyers for the parents criticised yesterday’s ruling, which cannot be appealed. Lambert’s parents’ lawyer Jean Paillot, expressed “great disappointment” and called on doctors to reassess Lambert’s condition and “make a new medical decision” — stressing that the initial decision had been taken in January 2014.
However, Lambert’s nephew Francois welcomed the decision and said he hoped his uncle “will be freed very, very soon”.
“There’s no relief, no joy to express. We’d just like his will to be done”, Lambert’s wife, Rachel, said after the ruling of the Strasbourg-based court. The court ruled there was “no consensus among the Council of Europe member States in favour of permitting the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment”, and states could exercise discretion.
Few countries in the world explicitly permit euthanasia or assisted suicide, but a French law passed in 2005 allows for removal of artificial life support in certain cases after strict procedures.
The 47 member countries of the Council of Europe must ensure their laws respect the European Convention of Human Rights, a pact established in the wake of World War Two. Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
